Hawaii Trip - lens suggestions

Why not bring more lenses, but switch which 2 you take on an outing each time? That worked well for me. The Hilton room even had a safe to store valuables like lenses.

17-40L for sure. Wish I had wider lens at the time. A nice fast prime is also good but don't see in the gear listed.

Is this a photography trip or a vacation for the whole family?

In the later, and it was me, I'd go minimalist. It's no fun carting gear around in the heat, humidity, salt, sand and thieves.

I can't count the number of trips I've made to the islands.

windpig wrote in post #15057593
Is this a photography trip or a vacation for the whole family?

In the later, and it was me, I'd go minimalist. It's no fun carting gear around in the heat, humidity, salt, sand and thieves.

I can't count the number of trips I've made to the islands.

This trip is the family vacation.
I agree with you that I want to minimize the stuff and have more time to enjoy the trip.
I'm still debating between the 17-40 and 24-105, or 24-70. As I read through many post here, the all purpose lens 24-105 would be great. I know it's not wide enough, and long enough, but hopefully it would cover most of the scenes here. I don't go to see the whale watch or surfing watch, I just focus on landscape and family activities.

Why only bring part of your kit? I always take my entire kit on vacation (5D3 + 7 lenses + flash + filters + tripod); if I wouldn't, i would for certain miss the lens that I didn't bring. It's fits in a big backpack. As the pack is quite heavy (12 kg) and I normally walk ~5 hrs or more per day during a trip, i recently got my self a set of lowepro s&f bags. So I take my entire kit with me, but depending if I'll go to a city or into the nature, I leave part of my kit in the hotel (or in the car for that matter). It allows me to optimize my kit per day.

Your choice of the 5D and 24-105 is good. I was born in Hawaii and now visit at least twice a year. The FF sand 24mm is wide enough for 99% of your shots and the 105 is usually long enough unless you plan to shoot surfing. Then you'll need a 400-600 mm lens which is HUGE. Remember if you need anything wider than 24mm take several shots and stitch them together.

Denny G wrote in post #15055499
Take your 5D and the 24-105 and you will take a lot of good photos and you will have fun.

+ 1

I live down the street from Waikiki so in my experience, the two most important lens to have is a general purpose wide to mid angle zoom and a telephoto fast aperture zoom. I think the 24-105 and your 70-200 would be the ideal setup. First, 24mm on the wide end would be wide enough for your FF camera for landscape and group shots and Image stabilization is invaluable if you are on a sunset dinner cruise when the boat is moving. The 70-200 focal length and 2.8 will be great for portrait and luau shots in low light.

I am heading to Maui next month and want to go light as well. Was planning to leave the tripod behind and carry four lenses, 17-55mm, 70-200 F/4 IS, Sigma 10-20 and likely throw either the 40mm pancake or nifty fifty in the bag as well. All of this on a 7D.

Reading the thread, not sure I need the Sigma at all. It's primarily a recharge the batteries trip, so just planning to take a Domke F-3x along.